--- title: NASA’s Next Telescope Has 50x Terp Power date: 2026-08-28T11:06:00-04:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/nasas-next-telescope-has-50x-terp-power" section: Articles --- # NASA’s Next Telescope Has 50x Terp Power *August 28, 2026* — by [Chris Carroll](/authors/chris-carroll) - *Photos courtesy of NASA* > Powerful instrument to search galaxy for exoplanets, dark matter. *54324458497 d15f2a770d 1920x1080 — Technicians prepare the Roman telescope’s core components for thermal testing at Goddard Space Flight Center.* **IF WEARING COLLEGE SPIRIT GEAR** to work were a normal part of NASA culture, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt might resemble McKeldin Mall between classes. That’s what Maxime Rizzo Ph.D. ’16 learned when he showed up for a gathering of University of Maryland alums working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center early Sunday. “I was totally shocked to see how many folks I’ve been working with so long who I had not known had gone to Maryland,” says the systems engineer for Roman’s 300 megapixel-widefield instrument. In all, more than 50 Terps are involved with the telescope, which will capture swaths of the sky about 100 times larger than an image from the Hubble Space Telescope once it begins science operations. It will orbit nearly a million miles from Earth near another astronomical tool led in part by Terps: the James Webb Space Telescope. Whereas Webb, launched in 2021, was built to look far and deep, Roman provides the sweeping vistas needed to investigate dark matter, dark energy and the structure of the universe; it will also enable an expansive search of the Milky Way galaxy for distant worlds called exoplanets. *The Roman telescope being assembled at Goddard Space Flight Center.* *Technicians install a sun shield on the Roman telescope. — Technicians at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center install the solar array sun shield on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. These panels will power the entire observatory and help keep the instruments cool by shading them from sunlight.* Astronomy Senior Research Scientist David Bennett, who has a joint appointment at Goddard, is one of the mission’s founders and will be using the wide-field camera for the mission’s “gravitational lensing” exoplanet survey. With his late wife and scientific collaborator, Sun Hong Rhie, Bennett discovered decades ago that even Earth-size celestial masses can bend space enough to briefly cause stars behind them to appear brighter, as if magnified by a glass lens. Roman will scan the breadth of the sky using this method, and the team hopes to spot thousands of planets that couldn’t be found with the more typical “transit” method, which observes the subtle dimming of stars when nearby planets in their system pass in front. Because it’s not dependent on the light of a nearby sun to work, gravitational lensing should even be able to spot mysterious planets that apparently wander starless through our galaxy. Watching the rocket carrying Roman take off represented a culmination of one part of Bennett’s career, and the beginning of a new phase. “The software we’ve written is going to be working through this data,” he says. “That means I have lots of work to do, so I’m not inclined to retire anytime soon.” *A large group of UMD alums with a Maryland Terrapins flag featuring an image of Testudo. — In January, dozens of UMD alums working on the mission gathered outside the room where the telescope was assembled at the Goddard Space Flight Center.* Other UMD personnel on the mission include astronomy Ph.D. student Ellis Bogat, who is working on the telescope’s other major imaging device, a coronagraph, which will peer through the glare of distant stars to spot other exoplanets. Astronomy Associate Professor Suvi Gezari will use the wide-field instrument to search beyond our galaxy for tidal-disruption events—bright outbursts that occur when black holes rip apart stars. Meanwhile, the Roman mission’s administrative structure includes Goddard Space Flight Center Director Jamie Dunn ’93, Project Manager Jackie Townsend ’94 and Deputy Observatory Manager Hsiao Smith ’89. More recent grads are deeply embedded in the mission, too. Mechanical engineer Caroline Griffin ’21 has led the building of Roman’s primary structure, which she compares to the backbone of the telescope, holding wiring, electronics and other key components. *rendering of a telescope in space — Rendering of the Roman Space Telescope after launch.* - Joanne Baker ’83 - Rich Barclay ’86 - Lisa Bartusek ’90 - Dante Berdeguez ’02, ’09 - Shelly Conkey M.E. ’04 - Pat Crouse ’90, M.S. ’94 - Kelly Daniluk ’12 - Nick Davis ’20 - Bill Dehaven ’99 - William DeRocco, physics postdoctoral associate - Benedikt Diemer, astronomy associate professor - Jenny Donaldson ’10 - George Dorsey ’86 - Alison Duck ‘19 - Tom Guarino ’14 - Michael Greklek-McKeon ‘19 - Taylor Hale ’90 - Matt Heron ’16 - Oscar Hsu ’00, M.S. ’02 - Zach Josefson ’22 - Madhu Kadari M.S. ’92 - Mark Klappenberger ’97 - Dan Kelly ’02, M.S. ’05 - Matthew Lastovka M.S. ’25, Ph.D. ’27 - Lia Lewis ’11, M.S. ’15 - Alice Liu ’96, M.S. ’98 - Dana Louie M.S. ’16, Ph.D. ’21 - Phil Luers ’88 - Mike Mahon ’07 - Conrad Mason M.S. ’23 - Mark Melton ’93 - Sarah Moran, assistant professor - Charlie Mpetha, postdoctoral associate - Lee Mundy, astronomy professor - Wanyi Ng M.S. ’18 - Khashayar Parsay ’07, M.S. ’08 - Eish Patel ’12, M.S. ’19 - Neel Patel ‘18 - Matt Patsy ’20 - John Pope ’96 - Jillian Rastinejad, astronomy postdoctoral associate, NASA Einstein fellow - Asaf Sahin ’13, M.S. ’18 - Matthew Samuel ’97 - Kelly Seaton ’10 - Neil Shah ’15 - Scott Smith ’07 Sean Terry, astronomy assistant research scientist - Missie Vess ’01, M.S. ’05 - Matthew Voorhees ’94 - Robert Wilson, astronomy postdoctoral associate - George Wofford ’96 - Kim Wrenn ’91, M.S. ’94 **Issue:** [Fall 2026](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2026) **Types:** [Explorations](https://terp.umd.edu/category/explorations)